Richard N. Haass

Expertise

Bio

Dr. Richard Haass is in his fourteenth year as president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, publisher and educational institution dedicated to being a resource to help people better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.

In 2013, he served as the chair of the multiparty negotiations in Northern Ireland that provided the foundation for the 2014 Stormont House Agreement. For his efforts to promote peace and conflict resolution, he received the 2013 Tipperary International Peace Award.

From January 2001 to June 2003, Dr. Haass was director of policy planning for the Department of State, where he was a principal advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador, Dr. Haass also served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and U.S. envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process. In recognition of his service, he received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award.

Dr. Haass has extensive additional government experience. From 1989 to 1993, he was special assistant to President George H.W. Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. In 1991, Dr. Haass was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal for his contributions to the development and articulation of U.S. policy during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Previously, he served in the Departments of State (1981–1985) and Defense (1979–1980), and was a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate.

Dr. Haass also was vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, the Sol M. Linowitz visiting professor of international studies at Hamilton College, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. A Rhodes scholar, Dr. Haass holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and master’s and doctorate degrees from Oxford University. He has also received numerous honorary degrees.

Dr. Haass is the author or editor of twelve books on American foreign policy and one book on management. His next book, A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order, will be published in January 2017 by Penguin Press.

Dr. Richard Haass was born in Brooklyn, New York, and lives in New York City.

Richard N. Haass contrasts the decisions that shaped the conduct of two wars between the United States and Iraq involving the two presidents Bush and Saddam Hussein, and writes an authoritative, personal account of how U.S. foreign policy is made, what it should seek, and how it should be pursued.

All Publications

Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Quartet Representative to the Middle East, discusses the role of international governments in promoting democracy in the Middle East with Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The United States should be quietly pressing for President Mubarak to step aside and allow for a transfer of authority in Egypt--either a constitutional reform process or a caretaker government, says CFR President Richard N. Haass.

Richard N. Haass says the current policy in Afghanistan is diverting scarce military resources when threats like Iran and North Korea loom--and the return of al Qaeda can be prevented with far fewer troops.

The unauthorized release of a trove of U.S. diplomatic documents, while revealing little new, could harm vital U.S. national security interests in Pakistan and Yemen, writes CFR President Richard N. Haass.

The Republican gains in Congress mean complications for President Obama's arms control policy, a stalled climate change agenda, possible movement on trade, and likely more support on Afghanistan, says CFR President Richard Haass.

What To Do About The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs, National Security Council (2002-2005)

, Edward P. Djerejian

Director, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University; Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel (1993-1994) and Syria (1988-1991)

Executive Vice President, The Brookings Institution; Former Special Envoy for the Israeli Palestinian Negotiations, U.S. Department of State (2013-2014); Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel (1995-1997 and 2000-2001)

What to Do About Egypt

Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

, Daniel C. Kurtzer

S. Daniel Abraham Professor, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University; Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel

, Shibley Telhami

Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, University of Maryland, College Park; Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Author, The World Through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East

HBO History Makers Series with Madeleine K. Albright

SpeakerMadeleine K. AlbrightChair, Albright Stonebridge Group; Former U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State; Author, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948PresiderRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations

Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

SpeakerDaniel SenorAuthor, Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle; Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsIntroductory SpeakerRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations

December 8, 20095:30–7:00 p.m. - Cocktail Reception and Book Signing with Informal Remarks at 6:00 p.m.

American Leadership and Global Governance in an Age of Nonpolarity

SpeakersR. Nicholas BurnsFormer Under Secretary for Political Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Ellen LaipsonPresident and Chief Executive Officer, Henry L. Stimson Center, David F. GordonHead of Research, Eurasia GroupModeratorStewart M. PatrickSenior Fellow and Director, Program on International Institutions, Council on Foreign RelationsIntroductory SpeakerRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations

Daughters and Sons Event

SpeakerRobert M. GatesSecretary of Defense, United States Department of DefensePresiderRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations

December 17, 20085:30–6:00 p.m. - Reception6:00–7:00 p.m. - Meeting

This meeting is on the record.

Meeting ⁄ New York

Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President

SpeakersRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations, Martin S. IndykDirector, The Saban Center for Middle East Policy, The Brookings Institution, Gary SamoreVice President and Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair, Council on Foreign Relations

SpeakersMadeleine K. AlbrightChairman, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs; Former U.S. Secretary of State, Edward AldenBernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, Robert D. CoombeChancellor, University of Denver, Elizabeth C. EconomyC.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, Tom J. FarerDean, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, John HickenlooperMayor, City of Denver, Jim PolsfutChairman, 2008 Rocky Mountain RoundtablePresiderRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations

God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World

SpeakerWalter Russell MeadHenry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, Author, "God and Gold: Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World"PresiderRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations

Forging a World of Liberty Under Law: U.S. National Security in the 21st Century - Final Report of the Princeton Project on National Security

SpeakerAnne-Marie SlaughterDean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University; Co-Director, The Princeton ProjectPresiderRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations

Arthur C. Helton Memorial Lecture on Divided Nations: The Dilemmas of International Protection for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons

SpeakersRoberta CohenSenior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution; Co-Director, The Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement; and Principal Adviser to the Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Francis M. DengDirector of the Center for Displacement Studies; Research Professor of International Law, Politics and Society, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress; and Wilhelm Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPresiderRichard N. HaassPresident, Council on Foreign Relations

In an article by Jenna Johnson and Phillip Rucker, Dr. Richard Haass comments that “the presidential campaign here is of intense interest to the entire world, in no small part because people and countries everywhere will be affected by our choice.”

In this Huffington Post article by Sam Stein and Jessica Schulberg, Dr. Richard Haass says, "Eliminating or eradicating the threat is impossible. We could be 99.99% effective and there would still be enough people to cause real harm. The goal should be to reduce -- dramatically -- the scale of the threat and what it can accomplish."

In this Wall Street Journal article by Gerald Seib, Dr. Richard Haass says, "The answer is not going to be an enormous force of Westerners. That’s not an answer. A U.S. or a NATO force wouldn’t fare better in western Iraq and much of Syria than the U.S. force did in Iraq or a NATO force did in Afghanistan. We need local partners.”

In Roger Cohen's New York Times op-ed, Dr. Richard Haass says “I think Obama exaggerates the limits and underestimates the upside of American power, even if the trend is toward a more difficult environment for translating power and influence. By doing so, he runs the risk of actually reinforcing the very trends that give him pause. Too often during his presidency the gap between ends and means has been our undoing.”

A decade ago, when the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, the United States chose to immerse itself in the greater Middle East when it had little reason to dive in. But now that most Americans want little to do with the region, U.S. officials are finding it difficult to turn away.

Presidential candidates should not only be asked how they will deal with foreign policy challenges but also what they would do ensure the United States is positioned to meet them, says Richard N. Haass in this Politico op-ed.